


Parie mon âme

by Flailchicken



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Asexuality, BUT BE PREPARED FOR ANYTHING JUST IN CASE, Character Death, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Death, Depression, Drug Abuse, Drug Use, Drug Withdrawal, I WILL TRY AND ADD HERE AS WE GO, M/M, Original Character(s), PTSD, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, SHOULD probably say you'll all get a happy ending eventually, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Trauma, Violence, Withdrawal, all in all I'm a sadistic shit and if you like angst you're at the right address, also I am ace and do request there shall be no negative discourse on the topic of Alastor's, also as always my work is not beta-d, because I can and will educate a thot, because I'm a self-concious twat, expect anyone to get hurt, expect possible mentions of, mostly emotionally, sue me, very slow burn, we'll be covering a lot of heavy shit like
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:35:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21654595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flailchicken/pseuds/Flailchicken
Summary: "There are a billion people that I could hand my soul to, but there is only one that I trust."After being at the hotel for about half a year, things seem to go downhill for Angel Dust at a fast enough pace that it leaves most of the hotel's residents with some serious concerns, though it seems as if the spider himself is the only one without worry.When push comes to shove, how far would one go to save a loved one-- even if they have to save them from themselves?
Relationships: Alastor & Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Alastor/Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Charlie Magne/Vaggie, Minor or Background Relationship(s), RadioDust
Comments: 83
Kudos: 271





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> READ. THE. TAGS.  
> I am not your parent and hold no responsibility.
> 
> Also, I haven't written anything for almost two years so if I'm a tad rusty, my apologies.
> 
> With that said, welcome on the rollercoaster to Hell.

It was a surprisingly quiet night for once in the Pentagram, the sky coated in a dark red hue as the only light that it carried shone from that one image that filled nearly every demon with dread once a year. There weren’t many that didn’t fear the yearly extermination, and those few that came off unbothered usually just had a lot of subordinates to spare, quite pathetic really. Personally, Alastor had always found it a sign of weakness, it was rather easy to not feel fear when the monsters were on the other side of so many walls. Those that would stand face to face with them and not break a sweat, those were the demons that should be looked up to, respected, some even feared like himself.

Alas, he had been left disappointed time and time again.

The demon draped in red let his eyes wander over some of the papers that had been left on his desk earlier throughout the day, most of them documentations from Charlie in regards to the redemption of their ‘patients’. Truthfully speaking, her way of writing was a little too positive for his liking, but to stumble upon those little notes of disappointment and read about the struggling of these lost causes, now those were worth his time even if only slightly.

The hotel had been almost dead silent for a while now, everyone having gone off to rest except for the Radio Demon himself and one specific ‘patron’ that had still not gotten the concept of a curfew after so many times of being berated over it. But it was no surprise that the princess of Hell kept falling for his promises, the little lies, the supposed ‘progress’ that said patron had definitely used in his manipulation tactics so many times it became predictable. If it were anyone else but Charlie, there’d be no way he’d convince anyone to let him go out those doors again— though Alastor greatly appreciated the touch of peace and quiet that the place would get every time Angel did leave the premises.

Even so, this time the spider demon was definitely testing the limits to his late return.

Usually it would be an hour or two past curfew that he’d barge in, immediately followed by Charlie questioning him in worry and Vaggie about to bury him six feet under for making her worry in the first place. Then there’d be some lame and uncreative excuse to get the two to lay off, even though the scent of smoke, booze or even worse and unspeakable things was tainting the air within the lobby enough to overrule any bullshit he’d spout.

How Charlie still convinced herself that he was well on his way towards redemption was a mystery.

Eyes of a crimson red hue glanced over at the clock that had been hanging on the wall slightly tilted, as to his liking, and Alastor barely subdued the annoyed twitch that his eyelid threatened to make at seeing the time; 3:25AM. It was a good thing he had told the girls to head off to bed when he did, surely had they still been up and waiting for Angel’s return it would be nothing but pure hell (ironically) once he would set even one single spider-foot through that door— and there was not one bone in the red demon’s body that would put up with such a scenario at this time, the night time was his rare moment of silence in this building and he was very keen on keeping it that way.

So now here he was, sitting in the room that had been assigned as his office, casually spinning in his chair while skimming through papers he had probably already looked through over five times by now as he waited for that front door to make the telltale creaking sound of one certain idiot trying to sneak his way in. It wasn’t necessarily a bother, nor was Alastor going out of his way considering he never truly slept anyway, sleep was a concept he had abandoned decades ago along with many other things. In fact, he wasn’t even trying to be helpful here. If anything, he just wanted his peace and quiet for the night, and by morning he would inform the ladies on at what time their wonderful patron had returned at last— there was no way he would miss out on seeing Vaggie blow a fuse beyond saving, it was one of the few sources of amusement he had in a day, and what better way to start the morning than seeing Angel on the brink of being turned into the hotel’s brand new hearth rug? Why the idea alone was already amusing enough to keep him lost in thought at the many possibilities of punishment that firecracker of a girl would bestow upon the demon, but not lost enough to miss the all too familiar sound of a car stopping right outside the building.

At last, it seemed Hell’s well-known porn star had decided to call it a night.

The radio demon sat eerily still now, nothing but the sound of crackling fire coming from the fireplace as it very nearly drowned out the muffled voices outside the hotel, nothing clear enough to understand what was being said but definitely enough to tell that none of the ones he was hearing belonged to the demon he was waiting for. Perhaps he had been wrong to assume that this was Angel being dropped off, for all he knew he was staying over somewhere and couldn’t be bothered to leave a message— it surely sounded like a stunt he would pull.

Minutes passed, the low voices making themselves audible every now and then, but most noticeable was the thumping against the wall outside that just made Alastor roll his eyes in annoyance. Sadly, this wasn’t an uncommon sound around here. Whoever came up with the idea that kicking some building you didn’t agree with existing would be a ‘cool’ thing to do, truly deserved to be in Hell if only for their pure and utter stupidity.

Thankfully, by the time he started to consider going out there and meddle in with this childish charade, it all stopped and the scene seemed to end when a car’s engine started revving once more, slowly going silent as it drove off into the distance. Alastor waited a few more seconds, tapping his foot against the desk to count to ten before pushing himself off into a spin once again, focus back on the papers in his hand as if the past half hour hadn’t even happened.

The stilled creak of the front door, however, had him downright slam his free hand on the desk in order to make his spinning come to a halt for the second time that night. This time though, he was sure it wasn’t for nothing, hearing the faint clicking of heels against the tiles in the lobby. Bright crimson hues turned to check the clock once more, a little past four in the morning, the grin on his face was almost like one of an excited child— though much more sinister when considering the reason for it was nothing but getting to watch another demon’s misery.

He remained frozen in place, listening to those steps outside his door, their pace incredibly sloppy and without any sort of rhythm to it— it was nothing new to assume the other was drunk off his ass, typical. The red cladded demon started humming in amusement, and the thought of waking up a specific staff member, that would most certainly combust at this disaster that was _hopefully_ making his way to bed, was tempting to say the least.

But— he had patience.

A rather audible thump against the door to his office shushed the humming instantly, eyes darting towards the source of the sound and ears almost twitching as they tried to catch any other noise that followed, which took a few seconds, but eventually a feeble voice stuttered his name from the other side of the door.

_“…Al._ _”_

It was weak, a certain edge to the spider demon’s voice, but at least this was a definite confirmation that it was him. The signature grin still spread across his face, Alastor found himself debating on whether he wanted an answer as to why Angel sounded the way he did, considering his line of work, however, the answer could very well be putting an image in his head he’d rather have burned in the fiery pits of hell itself.

It remained quiet for a little while, but he knew very well the other was still right outside his door, probably waiting for a response.

This wasn’t the first time this scenario had played out, not the first time Angel had been standing outside his door at some ungodly hour and definitely not the first time he had been completely shitfaced in the process. Usually not giving him any kind of response would eventually have him give up and turn around, but there was just something off about it this time.

Was it the tone of his voice that had sounded so hoarse it nearly made him unrecognizable?  
Was it the way the door still creaked as if something heavy was leaning against it?

Or perhaps it was the fact that instead of the usual stench of smoke or booze creeping into the room from beneath said door, it was an all too familiar metallic scent that had the radio demon practically jump out of his chair and storm towards the door.

The second he turned the knob, there was not a single part of his mind that tried to even look for an answer to those questions, the door being pushed open by the mere weight on the other side and Alastor was given no less than a second to react to the tall form that threatened to crash onto the floor of his office. As if on instinct, he reached out to catch the body that he could only identify as Angel by the voice he had heard earlier, any other telltale signs were almost beyond recognition. His striped suit ripped apart like he had been mauled by some wicked beast— but lacking any claw marks on his flesh to make that a believable case. Instead, it was lathered in bruises, as far as his eyes could see. Tufts of fur had been ripped out wherever there was any, and with whatever filth and grime sticking to the fur that was left, ‘white’ was about the least occurring color at this point.

Alastor squinted his eyes, finding so much to take in that his brain had difficulty coming up with a response to it all. That overwhelming scent of iron was downright attacking his sense of smell at this point, causing his nostrils to flare slightly and while at first he couldn’t spot much of a source, it was when his eyes stumbled upon it did some alarming kind of feeling bubble up within.

It was a small detail, the absence of one of Angel’s trademark pink gloves, that made him realize; _there were two arms missing_ _…_

In their stead he found an empty pair of ripped up sleeves, entirely soaked in blood as it cascaded down to the tiles beneath them, staining any cloth, fur and skin on the way down, the dripping sound falling onto deaf ears as all processing came to a halt in that instant— crimson, gloved hands clutching onto what he could nearly call a corpse at this point as he started dragging the heavily wounded resident down the lobby. Perhaps he just wanted to avoid any kind of responsibility and the certain nagging he would get if he were to treat this like any other beaten up body he had come across in the last decades, but there was no missing the loud crackling of his voice with static as he called out for the one person he knew was best to call the shots in a situation like this;  
  
**_“CHARLIE!!_** ** _”_**

****


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> note: things aren't always in chronological order but I feel like it is clear enough that it shouldn't bring too much confusion  
> with that said, hope you all weren't expecting me to be nice just yet because _the plot thickens_...

For the longest time, everything was dark. No sound, no sense of touch to give him any idea of where he was, not even a scent to give some sort of a hint. It was like all his senses had shut down simultaneously and while there was a small part of him that felt nothing but anxiety at this lack of information, there was something calming amidst all of this, though whether that could be considered a positive thing was the question that would probably never get an answer.

He remained in that same state of nothingness for what seemed like hours before he was able to pick up on the most faint of noises, finding them muffled as if he was far below the water’s surface. There was no way he actually was though, a deep inhale of air proved that.

As more time seemed to pass, clarity slowly came along with it. The sounds were clear by now, albeit very foreign to him, a mechanical beeping that he was sure he had heard before, yet he couldn’t place it. There was a weight on his body, he could feel that much, but no texture or anything to give him an idea of what it could be— it was like his body was numbed down to a point where he hadn’t been at for the longest of times. In fact, he was sure the last time he had felt this disconnected with the world were those agonizing last minutes of his mortal life, where he had just been laying there, feeling his life slip away in the form of vital functions coming to a halt one by one.

Another deep breath at least gave some comfort that he was still in control, mostly. It was a sign that at the very least, he hadn’t died and had gone to what he would always jokingly refer to as ‘double hell’, it would’ve been quite ironic had he actually ended up in there.

It was when the demon was sure at least half a day had gone by did the constant beeping start to get on his nerves. He had tried to get away from it, but found every attempt to move met by nothing but a stinging kind of pain surging through his entire frame. One of the first things that crossed his mind was the slightest feeling of worry as to how bad of a state he could possibly be in, considering his body still felt numb to any other sensation but pain.

He had started to notice a certain chemical kind of smell every now and then, was sure it came accompanied with the sound of heels clacking against tiles more often than not, though it was getting difficult to catch on to that by the time he could hear his own breathing over just about anything but that annoying machine going absolutely batshit crazy a few feet away from him. If only he could lift either of his arms to punch the thing in the metaphorical face, perhaps he’d have a tiny bit more peace of mind.

By the time his sense of temperature had returned, Angel’s annoyance had risen to a point where it was enough for him to let out a very displeased grumble as the creaking of a door left a loud ringing echoing in his mind, triggering what had to be just about the worst headache he’d had in a while. Curiosity had taken control eventually though, as a dulled hue of pink showed itself and finally granted him the sense of sight he had been missing to make sense of this situation.

The first thing he’d noticed, was the flickering lights and imagery on that machine he had come to passionately hate in the last who knows how many hours. It took a few seconds for both of his eyes to open themselves properly as his brain puzzled together that he was looking at a heart monitor, and by the way it’s noisy bullshit spiked up a notch at that exact moment of realization, he could only assume it was attached to none other than himself.

He was at the medical clinic of the hotel.  
He couldn’t even fucking recall what he did to end up in this place once again.

His line of thought was interrupted as a somewhat familiar voice made itself known, a voice that he had come to hear more often than he’d like to in the past few weeks, for more reasons than it being so blandly monotone that it got on his nerves.

The voice belonged to no one other than the hotel’s very own nurse, Madecine. She’d been a ‘great addition to the staff’, or so Charlie had claimed. Personally, he wasn’t too ecstatic on the whole ‘sticking her nose in everyone’s business’ idea. Especially the way she seemed to be on Angel’s case more than anyone else, though perhaps he had himself to blame for that. He had enough pride to admit that his states of being upon return to the hotel, would probably trigger just about anyone in any medical department.

“Oh good… you’re up.”

Angel briefly wondered if it would kill her to put a little bit of pep in her voice every now and then. Madecine was about the opposite of Alastor in the sense that whereas his attempts to get the radio demon’s smile to falter had so far been unsuccessful, the hotel’s nurse refused to even so much as curl her lips upwards when in his vicinity.

He’d seen her smile before, had seen her laughing even, but never when she was aware of his presence— it was almost like she did it out of spite.

To make things even worse, Madecine happened to be a spider demon herself as well. This wouldn’t be too big a problem for him, if it wasn’t for the fact that the bitch had a sixth sense for just about any possible stunt he could pull to get himself out of trouble with her.

Orbs of pink slowly shifted, glancing around the room before settling on the frame that belonged to none other than the nurse herself. One pair of arms holding a pen and clipboard, the second crossed in front of her ribcage, and the last propped up on her hips as her lime green eyes were seemingly trying to burn holes into his forehead.

If looks could kill, he’d be about triple dead by now.

There was a long moment of silence between the two arachnids, nothing but an exchange of glares for what felt like a minute or two before the one currently looking sickly white tried to speak up, finding nothing but a raspy sound coming out and turning into a dry cough. This apparently broke the tension enough for the blue cladded nurse to turn and leave the room momentarily, though the solitude was very short lived as she returned mere seconds later with two other demons in tow behind her.

The worried look in Charlie’s eyes had him experience the tiniest bit of guilt, even though he had still no recollection of what in the fuck he had done that got him there, but it was when his eyes met with Vaggie’s permanent frown did an urge for his lips to twist into a smirk win the mental battle—much to her annoyance of course.

There came that silence again, nothing but stares and looks and for once he wasn’t sure whether he liked to be the center of attention here. It was clear as day that all of those eyes were judging him in some way or form, and it was weirdly bothering him.

Charlie was the one to break that silence this time, a deep sigh escaping from her lips as she slowly approached the bed that the spider demon was situated in—a brief glance at the heart monitor before she focused back on him.

“Angel… what happened..?”

It was clear she tried to remain calm, professional in a way, but the hint of bags under her eyes and the red hue at the waterline of her eyes were a very clear indication of just how upset she was.

Angel, being so used to keeping up his rather aloof persona by now, just gave her a shrug in response, which caused the blonde’s eyebrows to furrow slightly and for Vaggie’s to do so even more. The spider demon cleared his throat, about to give her a verbal response before a quiet, crackling sound had his pink eyes drift to the corner of the room where there was now a fourth figure accompanying the other three, though this heap of red seemed more amused than agitated unlike the others.

The ever so present grin on the radio demon’s face brought up that inner need to try and make it waver, even if only slightly, as Angel matched with a wide grin of his own.

“Glad to see ya joining us, hot stuff~”

The words slipped out easily, the slightest hint of a purr in his tone to mask how gravelly and harsh his voice was sounding at the moment. He’d expect the other to retaliate in some way shape or form, at the least squint his eyes a little to tell Angel to ‘stop it’ without words, but there was nothing, no response but that smirk becoming even wider and that wasn’t usually spelling out much good.

He was drawn back to his previous conversational partner as the princess of hell placed one of her hands on the edge of the bed, gaining his attention once more as she repeated her question a little more insisting this time, her gaze never leaving his own and clearly she was not going to be leaving without an answer—so he’d best give her one.

Another shrug caused Vaggie to audibly growl before he shot her a quick glance and spoke up.

“I dunno, ’s all kind of vague.”

No one seemed to accept that answer, and surprisingly Madecine seemed even more ticked off by it than the moth demon standing a few feet away from her. With a short sigh, Charlie decided to just keep on asking, and by now this really started to feel like an interrogation.

“Do you remember anything at all? Where you were? Who you were with? … Anything?”

He briefly shook his head, which made him once again aware of that headache that was just screaming for his attention just like everything and everyone else right now.

“Nope, not a clue—this ain’t the first time I’ve partied a lil’ too hard though~”

Playing it off like a joke usually would make the situation a little lighter, though this time it was like he poured an entire bottle of gasoline on an already uncontrollable forest fire as Madecine slammed every single one of her hands down on the table she had been leaning against.

To say she was radiating fury was an understatement, and before the male spider demon could even register it, there were four pair of lime green eyes mere inches away from him as she leaned over the hospital bed, all of them staring him down and metaphorically throwing daggers at him. He could hear her hissing behind gritted teeth, and her words dripped from her lips like venom with no other emotion but pure anger in its tone—an improvement of that monotone voice at least.

“Listen up you arrogant fuck— I am about **THIS** close to taking you off pain medication and just letting you sit on the fucking blisters your own stupid ass created if that will make you drop the attitude. If you’re not here to clean up your act and are just wasting everyone’s time, do us all a favor and go back to the shithole you crawled out of!”

Angel just looked at her dumbfoundedly, blinking a few times as his mind lingered on her words. The fact he was high on pain killers at least explained why he could only feel this damn headache and nothing else past his shoulders.

The moment between the two arachnids was shattered rather abruptly when Alastor let out a laugh at Madecine’s outburst, apparently finding it amusing if anything, which thankfully turned her fury from Angel to the radio demon himself. Luckily though, even Madecine knew better than to fly off the handle with that one, and instead she just snapped the pen she had been fidgeting with in half, excusing herself from the room and slamming the door closed behind her.

The white spider couldn’t help but let a chuckle escape him as well, considering even Vaggie appeared shocked at the level of anger the other woman had just displayed. Not his smartest move probably as she then decided to take over on that anger right away.

“And what do you think you’re laughing at?!”

Angel managed to raise one pair of hands defensively, although it felt extremely weird and uncomfortable, almost like all his limbs had fallen asleep—forcing movement from them would probably stay on a low for the time being.

“Whoa whoa calm your a-cups, Vags. ‘S just funny to see someone even more hotheaded than you is all.”

She nearly launched herself at the arachnid, who threw up his second set of hands.

Except…  
He didn’t.

While Charlie held her girlfriend back from committing a murder, Angel’s focus went down to the sheets covering everything below his chest. Sheets that were still perfectly in place, unmoved. He could feel his heart in his throat, was sure the taste in his mouth was nothing but pure stomach acid as his headache doubled its intensity, pounding on his skull like it was a drum solo. Shaky hands pushed the bedsheets off about halfway, thin fingers prying at the fabric of his robe that covered him, only having one set of sleeves which really wasn’t sitting well with him.

The demon carefully lifted the teal fabric enough to be able to peak under it for about 0.2 seconds before it was abruptly dropped as he rapidly covered his mouth, feeling like he was going to hurl if he didn’t find a different image to focus on, something that was not the sight of his own midriff wrapped in bandages and a very obvious lack of arms, two shallow indentations in their place.

He tried to calm himself down, reminding himself they’d regenerate, everything would be fine. Yet, he was still shaking, sweating profusely and breathing in and out rapidly as Charlie once again moved her hand, gently resting it on his knee, not wanting to possibly trigger something if she had tried to reach for his hand.

“Angel… you’ve been in a coma for two weeks…”

\- - -

The room was silent as the princess of hell let her eyes roam over the papers in her hands, the only sound being the flipping of pages as she skimmed over them once, twice, who knows how many times. Her brows were pulled together in a slight frown and the corners of her mouth tilted down in a halfway scowl, her teeth nipping at her bottom lip every now and then as the inner monologue with herself went on.

Vaggie sat next to her at the table, showing signs of worry over the amount of times those pages had been reread by now, but it was a difficult to find expression behind the all too familiar glower. On the other side of said table sat Madecine, the hotel’s very own medical staff that had joined their team a few months back as part of her route to redemption.

Her blue hair was pulled together in a ponytail, cool grey skin a stark contrast against her bright lime green eyes as they followed the princess’ every move, waiting for her to give any kind of a response or sign that she had understood the situation they were in by the information in those documents.

“…Are you a hundred percent sure?”

Were the first words to fill the room in the last half hour or so, Charlie’s eyes locking with Madecine’s as if she was looking for something to tell her ‘no’, but there was no doubt about it that the answer was;

“A hundred percent, I ran the test a total of three times.”

The nurse’s answer drew a heavy sigh from the princess’ lips, papers placed down on the table as she opted to hold her own head in her hands instead.

“I should’ve known, I just--- I was hoping he was speaking the truth…”

It was clear as day how upset she was, and no one in the room could blame her. Charlie had put off the suggestion of having Angel tested for drug use too many times to count, always feeling like it was up to her to trust his words because who else would? Well, no one now, definitely. After Angel had returned to the hotel in a state that was infinitely worse than any other time, the blonde had finally given in to both Madecine and Vaggie their persistence on the test, and now the results of that were splayed across the table for all of them to see.

“I’m surprised it still read as ‘blood’ with how high the rates were…”

Madecine’s attempt at jokes were always rather odd, she was well aware of that, but it was better than another half hour of silence. A part of her felt somewhat relieved that there was at least the confirmation of their suspicions now, while the other part was contemplating how many of her hands she could fit around the spider demon’s neck. To think he had been in this place for nearly half a year, just wasting everyone’s time, it made her blood boil to say the least.

Vaggie had chosen to remain a lot more calm than either of the other two had expected of her, one of her hands resting on Charlie’s shoulder as a sign of support, while the other turned the pages towards herself so she could glance at them. Her eye skimmed over the same papers rapidly before stacking them back together and pushing them towards Madecine, who made not a single move to grab them, instead having her eyes glued to Charlie’s form until her girlfriend spoke up.

“Just to rule this out, but is it possible that whoever beat him to shit administered any drugs?”

This time is was the nurse who took her turn to sigh, getting up from her seat and leaning over the table as she reached for the forms, sorting them into the correct order and tapping them against the table so they’d be perfectly stacked all the while she responded to the question.

“Not a chance, the tests all showed results of long term drug use. I would bet you my very soul he has at least a bag or two hidden somewhere in his room— whatever you want to do with that information is your concern.”

Surely, Angel was her patient right now, but more so for his injuries than anything else, the drug use was up to Charlie to decide on. She gave both of the girls a last glance before leaving the room, excusing herself briefly as she made her return to her very own workplace. It was then that Charlie allowed her head to tilt and rest on the hand that was still gripping her shoulder, finding comfort in even the slightest touch as the frown on her face only deepened, the internal struggle with herself very evident.

“What do we do now, Vaggie? Sure, I could have his room searched and all but when he wakes—at any time he could just sign out and leave…”

The moth demon carefully shifted her hand beneath the girl’s cheek until it was gently cupping the blonde’s face, her thumb tracing the edges of the red circles that adorned her skin. When big eyes turned upwards to look at her, Vaggie gave a small smile, trying to encourage for Charlie to give one in return, but not surprised when she didn’t.

“For starters, we have to figure out something that’ll get Angel to drop the whole drug ordeal before---”

“No need for that sweetheart, I got it all covered!”

A loud voice, amplified by the sharp noise of static, echoed through the room and caused both of its occupants to visibly jump and swiftly turn their head to look at the figure standing in the door opening, a sight that had the moth demon return to her trademark scowl as she got up from her chair, seemingly as a way to be ready for whatever the radio demon could possibly throw at them.

“Oh really, _you_ got all of it covered..?”

“With absolute certainty! No need to worry your little heads about any of it!”

She squinted her eye in suspicion, her hand pulled away from Charlie as she crossed her arms.

“So you’re telling me you already got a way to stop his drug use?”

“Precisely.”

“And you’ll have the room search covered too then?”

“Correct.”

“Got someone to take care of the pig?”

“Positive!”

“…”

Vaggie bit her lower lip, visibly agitated by this whole situation and clearly trying to think of something else to list, but the hand that softly placed itself down on her arm seemed to drain her of all anger in that moment as her girlfriend gave a weak smile as if to tell her it was okay. With one more stern look of ‘I’m watching you’ towards the radio host, Vaggie sat herself back down, albeit begrudgingly so.

“If Alastor says he’s got this covered, I’ll trust him to handle this.”

The blonde spoke, more so to Alastor than anyone else. It was almost as if she was trying to reach for any possible conscience the demon might possess, an assumption she most definitely would find incorrect at some point. Though whereas her trust in people was worryingly high, so was her curiosity.

“Who did you have in mind though?”

Her eyes filled with wonder as they very often were, Alastor couldn’t help but to respond by raising a finger and wagging it in a gesture that told her ‘no’. When the disappointment started to show on her features, he let an amused chuckle slip before turning his back to the girls and walking away from the scene with a rather fitting quote;  
  
“A magician never tells his secrets, my dear.”

\- - -

“You’re really not bothered by this… at all?!”

Whereas the question started out concerned, the underlying irritation was rather evident at its end. Angel could almost see the ends of white hair flare up and steam coming out of her ears when the arachnid gave another shrug for an answer, to no surprise Charlie wasn’t too fond of this answer either, that stern look on her face that was relatively rare to see and yet he managed to draw it out of her too many times to count.

“I mean… I woke up?”

“YOU _BLED_ _TO_ _DEATH!_ IS THAT NOT COMING THROUGH TO YOU?!”

Angel wasn’t going to say it, but the amount of hand movements Vaggie made in just that one sentence would’ve put any Italian to shame. He could swear that when she pulled at her own hair he saw a few strands snapping apart here and there, another reaction he wasn’t estranged to seeing thanks to his own antics triggering it so often, but this would have to be the first time he was looking at it from a hospital bed, an uncomfortable one at that.

“Well I came back, didn’t I?!”

The spider raised his own volume as if to battle the moth’s, Charlie having to raise a hand for them both to calm down and avoid any continuation of this oncoming screaming contest that was bound to happen.

“Angel, the states you have returned in for the past weeks might not be as worrying to you as it is to us--- but to brush off something like death as if it’s nothing…”

“It is!”

“No, it’s not! What is worth all this?! What makes you want to go out there so bad you would think death isn’t so bad a consequence for it?!”

Now that was new. Charlie, raising her voice at him, was definitely new. He could only wonder how long it took for her to gather the courage to do so, but simultaneously he wondered why he had been able to drive her to such a point. He had been mindful to not bring any more trouble to the hotel than he had already done in the past, so why was she angry?

The room had fallen silent for a while, no one knowing how to continue from that last outburst until it was the princess of hell herself that stood up from where she had taken a seat next to Angel’s bed. She straightened her back and took a deep breath, mentally whipping herself into a professional shape as she gave the arachnid a look he had only seen in his own father many decades ago, one of disappointment, one that just spelled;

“You leave me no choice then—you are no longer leaving this hotel without supervision.”

It was the first time something Charlie said made his heart drop down to his stomach, and it did not take long for the white-furred demon to retaliate.

“WHAT?! I THINK THE FUCK NO—”

“And while we’re at it, no more drugs and no bringing ‘work’ to the hotel either.”

“OH JUST CUT ME OFF FROM EVERYTHIN’ WHY DON’T YOU!”

“It’s for your own good, Angel.”

“ ‘Own good’ my fuckin’ ass, whaddya expect me to do without an income, huh?!”

“There’s more than enough to do around the hotel that I’ll be more than happy to compensate you for.”

He hated it. He hated how she wasn’t budging, how of all the times Charlie picked to get a spine it was the one time where he was metaphorically tied to a bed and couldn’t just walk out on the conversation or the hotel in general. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t eventually.

“Yeah no, I’d like to resign.”

It was then that the static, which had faded in with the other background noises, made itself heard once more, the most sinister of chuckles hidden beneath it as Alastor crossed his legs, still sitting far off into the corner but he very well could’ve been sitting at some stupid musical show the way he seemed to find all of this so amusing.

“As much as I would love to see you leave, you might want to reconsider that idea.”

If Angel wasn’t unsure of how awake he was, he could’ve sworn that the white noise that surrounded the radio demon’s words sounded downright like a purr. But he had no time to dwell on that, as an agitated spider was a guarantee for an agitated response.

“Mind your own fuckin’ business, smiles.”

Alastor’s claws ever so carefully tapped a rhythm on the armrest of the chair, eyes of a glowing crimson not ever faltering slightly as they stared directly into pools of a bright shade of magenta, that trademark smile only seeming to grow wider as he pondered on a response for about a second or two.

“Oh but I am! You see, there’s a deal to be uphold.”

Had Angel been looking at anyone else in the room but that demon dressed in red, he’d have realized that everyone there shared the same look of confusion on their face as he repeated those words.

“A deal?”

“Is what I said, yes.”

“The fuck are you on about?”

The arachnid wasn’t sure whether seeing Alastor get up from that seat was a good or a bad thing, nor could he figure out the exact level of discomfort that came with it. This wasn’t even something he would call ‘fearing’ the other, more than that he could just sense that the other was up to something and he certainly could not appreciate it.

“It is a rather simple deal really. _If_ the little spider does not behave, I get paid a soul.”

Angel let out a rather fake snicker, a smirk forming on his lips as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the pillow that was propped up behind him.

“Sorry to disappoint ya, Al— but my soul is no longer mine to hand over~”

Besides that little fact, he knew better than to make a deal with overlords now that he had been stuck in one for about as long as he could remember. Though his cocky attitude faded quite rapidly when the other seemed unphased, in fact even more amused by the answer he was given, as words ricocheted off the walls in a low hiss;

_“Who said anything about **your** soul?_ _”_

There it was again, that feeling like he had just swallowed a rock. Alastor gestured to the entrance of the clinic, the sound of the doorknob turning send his heartrate into a frenzy and he just could not explain why, but something was terribly wrong about all this. The low creak as it opened ever so slowly had his breath get stuck in his throat, before it was brutally knocked out of him once his eyes locked with ones of a similar hue of pink and his brain unraveled what exactly the radio demon had meant with his words.

“Hi Angie.”

_“… Molly?!_ _”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for anyone curious as to what Madecine looks like, [here is a sketch](https://66.media.tumblr.com/b06b0d6b555e306e715a1c9a3bc453ce/4f489efc679c4d4a-a8/s540x810/0429795fb1ab453ec6b5d0d445c8d5e8638d85a7.png)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kept all of you waiting and for that I am sorry!   
> Blame the busy holiday season and me taking on way more than I could carry.  
> BUT, the schedule has been cleared up enough to dive back into this without drowning 👌  
> I'm also trying to create a bit of a buffer on chapters so that I can make the delays a little less dramatic in case this happens again.
> 
> Without further ado, I hope this'll be decent enough to make up for the wait! (and if not, come yell at me on tumblr or twitter 😂)

It had been a full fifteen minutes since everyone except for the two arachnid siblings had been more or less kicked out of the room (read: the two were too busy yelling at one another to bother with the other three occupants of the room slowly making their way out). There had not been a single minute of silence in that entire time. Vaggie didn’t say it out loud, but she was surprised just how much volume two people could muster. Charlie, on the other hand, was more worried about how they seemed to have some kind of infinite lung capacity.

Alastor was looking to be the only one who didn’t show a single sign of worry about the situation, but then again he was partially involved in its creation to begin with. The redhead was listening to the ruckus behind the closed door with an amused grin, head slightly tilting and the blonde was sure she could see one of his tufts of hair give the slightest twitch whenever one of the two screeching demons broke the sound barrier.

“Was that really necessary?”

Charlie’s voice questioned, thankfully loud enough for the radio host to catch it and turn his attention to her, feigning innocence like he had been doing it for decades, which was probably exactly the case.

“What do you mean, dear?”

“The deal--- was that really necessary?”

The princess was trying her best to keep a strict tone to her voice, having been put into many a situation over the past half year where she had needed to square up, it came a lot easier now but surely it still felt unnatural to her.

“I’ll have you know, it was the young miss herself that brought up the idea!”

She couldn’t say that that proud smile was getting on her nerves, but it surely wasn’t easing them either. While there was some part of her that appreciated the ‘help’ Alastor had offered, she couldn’t help but feel guilty over the family feud that was happening in the other room.

In a way she blamed herself for it too, perhaps if she had done something at an earlier stage, it wouldn’t have had to come to this. Had she not been the one to call Molly in, this whole deal wouldn’t even be a thing—and while she knew very well that the deal between her and Alastor could be undone, the blonde was also highly aware that in doing so, there was nothing to keep Angel from walking out the door and go who knows where.

Where and when she had come to care so much about the spider demon along this rocky road, she couldn’t even pinpoint it herself, but it happened and sweet lord Satan was it biting her in the ass more often than not.

“… I hope they’ll stop fighting sometime soon.”

Charlie muttered under her breath, not feeling like lingering any longer on the subject of exactly how Alastor had managed to reign Angel Dust in with just one single move, it’d be ungrateful to say she disliked it, so she wisely kept that opinion under lock and key.

Always her greatest support, Vaggie’s sixth sense for her inner struggles had seemed to catch on as Hell’s princess could feel thin fingers gently intertwining with her own, a glance to her right rewarding her with the most calming smile her girlfriend could possibly manage, and for just that moment all things seemed at peace.

That was until a loud crash followed by the violent slam of a door had everyone, even Alastor, jump where they stood—a tall figure stepping out before kicking that same door back into its frame as soon as she had stepped out. Charlie and Molly barely shared a second of a glance before the latter stormed off, rather rapidly too with her four legs. The hotel owner let her gaze shift from the arachnid stomping down the hallway, to the door she had no less than assaulted just now, wondering if it would even be wise to check in with the other side of the conflict.

“I’ll go get Madecine…”

The white-haired moth demon said with an agitated sigh before letting Charlie’s hand slip from her grip, quickly taking off to go and fetch the other, much less emotionally loaded, spider demon. Charlie spent a few seconds staring at the flooring beneath her feet, lost in thought, but soon enough went to chase after Molly without saying another word, leaving only the radio demon with the closed door those crimson eyes had been pretty much glued to.

\- - -

“What’re you doin’ here?!”

It wasn’t the question she had expected to get first, but Molly quickly straightened herself, her instincts wanting her to cross her arms in defense at hearing her brother raise his voice, but she suppressed it in favor of not letting him believe that she was going to back out on the choice she had made. The arachnid gestured at the hallway she had just been standing in, eyeing Alastor very briefly before answering;

“He asked me to wait out there.”

She could notice how Angel’s grip on the sheets tightened, knew very well in any other situation he would’ve most likely already thrown something at the radio demon, regardless of the literal hell he would unleash upon himself, merely because the guy was now considered a threat upon Molly’s life. The intense glare that he shot at that same demon didn’t go unnoticed either, but it was only brief as the white spider’s attention went back to her soon enough.

“That’s not--- ugh--- _WHY_ are you here… at all?!”

“I don’t know Angel, what should I have done when I get a call; ‘hey your brother bled to death in our lobby, is currently in a coma and we don’t know how long he’ll be out, can you come by’--?!”

That response seemed to shut him right up, obviously startled at her tone and debating on how to respond, but as soon as he parted his lips to try and do so, Molly could feel that thin thread holding back all of her frustration just _snap_.

“I’ve been waiting two whole weeks for you to wake up, and that is the first thing you want to ask me?! Where’s my ‘I’m glad to see you’? Where’s my apology?!”

“I---”

“You have been avoiding me for weeks! You have no time when I call to visit, you barely even respond to my texts— and then _when_ I get called in for a visit, you’re on a hospital bed hooked up to a monitor after some asshole ripped you apart like a ragdoll!”

“— _This_ is exactly why I’ve been distant, Mol!”

The both of them were not only raising their voices, their hands were joining in on the conversation as well now, which was a perfect que for anyone else to leave the vicinity unless they wanted to be dragged into this whole fiasco or worse. Vaggie only had to give Charlie’s sleeve a small tug for her to follow her out the door, glancing over to where Alastor had been standing only to see he had already left the room prior to them. The twins both heard the faint click of a door shutting, but neither cared enough to give it any of their attention, fully focused on one another as their yelling continued.

“Why do you push me away?! Because I care for you? Because I worry? You don’t even care for yourself anymore, how am I supposed to not worry about you?!”

“Why do ya have to get all up in my business, huh? Just fuckin’ let me be!”

“YOU DIED, MARTIN! SOMEONE _RIPPED OUT YOUR ARMS_ AND IT IS STILL NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU TO STOP AND THINK FOR A MOMENT?!”

Angel let out an aggressive hiss at hearing that name, it had sent an unpleasant chill up his spine and caused sharp claws to tear apart the sheets beneath them.

“It’s not like I actually die anyway, I still come back all the same!”

“You’re not the same…”

“The fuck I’m not— _look at me!_ _”_

_“YOU_ _’RE NOT MY BROTHER-!!_ _”_

A silence fell over them, the only sound breaking through being the fast-paced beeping of the monitor next to the bed. The initial shock of her words had Angel speechless for long enough that his eyes took the time to take in her appearance now. Her eyes were bloodshot, and he’d believe it was just from crying had it not been for the very prominent bags beneath her eyes as well. She was shaking where she stood, fingers clenched into fists so tightly her knuckles were turning white underneath the thin, pink fur.

“Mol…”   
His voice was barely audible compared to their previous shouting, but the mere tone of it had his sister’s breath hitch as she backed away, almost as if she was backing away from a fire, trying not to get burned.

“You’re nothing like him…”

This time, it was more like she had spoken to herself, like she was trying to convince herself of her own words. About two more steps back and she found herself against a wall, resisting the urge to slump down against it as her knees threatened to buckle.

“My brother would always tell me everything, no matter what it was.”

Their eyes, both a similar hue of pink, locked with one another, Molly’s brimmed with tears but her gaze was definitely a serious one— whereas Angel’s own were wide in shock, unsure if it was still from her outburst from earlier or from the words that she was uttering in this moment.

“My brother was there for me like I was there for him, listened to me no matter _how_ stupid I sounded. We did everything together, even if it got him into trouble. Even when dad tried to get him to stop and be more like ‘one of the men’, tried to separate us, he was still there.”

A gasp for air rung in his ears, the sound of his sibling’s choked out sobs bringing up feelings he hadn’t faced in decades, his body tensed up almost painfully as it found itself incapable of reaching out for his sister instinctively and hold her close.

“He never wore a mask around me, trusted me wholeheartedly to love him for who he was— as much as he was going through for being himself, he was always more concerned of our well-being than his own…”

There was a faint smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, but as quick as it showed up it also vanished, making way for a frown as both sets of arms crossed in front of her chest, a deep sigh sending a wisp of air through her fur.

“But you… you care most for some powder in a bag, care about how many men you can wrap around your finger like some homewrecker trophy. You’d rather spend a fortune on narcotics to shove into your system than even think of spending some of that on visiting family— even if you were to stop by, it’s not because you planned to, but because _I_ just happened to be conveniently nearby.”

He hated how much that stung, even when he was jammed so full with painkillers that he couldn’t feel anything below his waist at this point. It wasn’t that she had hit the nail on its head, but that this was the feeling his own actions had brought upon his sister—his other half.

“… Molly, please undo that contract.”

Wrong response.   
Very clearly the wrong response.

Molly’s frustration visibly returned tenfold, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he knew she wasn’t one to resort to physical violence, he’d feel quite threatened just by the aura she was giving off alone. It didn’t help that in his current position, she was towering over him in height as well, which was obvious even with how she was standing a pretty good distance away from the bed.

_“Assolutamente no_ _…”_

Slipping into a language that was more than familiar to the both of them was like adding fuel to the fire that was Angel Dust. He could feel just about every muscle above his waist tensing up and the hairs of his fur standing upright as the two had just officially reached round two in their war of words.

_“Molly, ascoltami solo questa volta!_ _”_

_“No._ _”_

A stare down followed, and it was very clear they had equal amounts of stubbornness running through their veins— a genetic which neither party could appreciate at this very moment. There was a faint ticking from a clock coming from somewhere in the room, but Angel couldn’t be bothered looking for it to know just how long they’d been glaring at one another. Both siblings had their arms crossed, although one had the upper hand on the amount right now, much to the brother’s annoyance.

_“Molly_ _… lo giuro su Dio---_ _”_

_“La mia risposta_ _è_ _‘no_ _’!_ _”_

Within less than a second, Angel’s left hand found the edge of that heart monitor and violently pushed it over, more so on a subconscious, violent impulse than anything, teeth grinding together hard enough that she could hear it.

Before her brother could even speak another word, Molly had returned the favor of an almost deafening slam, by kicking the door open as well as closed, stomping off and leaving Angel to sit there and think for a while— or so she hoped he would.

\- - -

Out of all places in the hotel, Charlie ended up standing right outside the door to Angel’s room, finding it wide open and the quiet sound of muffled sobs coming from within. She carefully leaned in enough for her head to peek in, the lights off except for a few of the decorative fairy lights that ran on batteries, but all in all the room was rather dark. Charlie could barely make out a figure sitting on the edge of a queen size bed, but it was no mystery who it was.

She softly cleared her throat, noticing how the sobs came to an abrupt halt as a pair of relatively large, pink eyes stared at her from within the darkness.

“Are you okay?”

Molly gave a quick nod, but realized that perhaps a non-visual response would be a better choice considering she had cladded herself in shadows.

“Yeah, it’s nothing—”

Charlie took this as her que to walk into the room, trying not to look around much both out of respect and just generally not wanting to know about the possible images that she’d be trying to wipe out of her mind later. The blonde walked up to the bed, carefully sitting herself down next to the significantly taller demon and gently placing a hand on her back as the woman rubbed at her eyes with the back of a hand.

“— my brother is just a total idiot, is all.”

“I figured that one out a while ago.”

The hellborn girl responded, marginally lightening the mood a little as it got the lightest giggle to slip from Molly’s lips, a sigh followed as Charlie only now noticed that she was clutching Angel’s pet pig to her fluffy chest, the little thing nuzzling against the soft fur as it was naturally familiar with it.

“I’m not proud of what I’m doing to him, you know? I just-- have nothing left but to apply to his selfless side.”

Charlie arched an eyebrow at those words.

“Angel Dust… selfless…?”

The arachnid looked at her a bit confused before a rather bittersweet smile adorned her features, all four hands ever so gently petting the little, pink creature that was in her arms.

“Right, you don’t know him like that.”

Her words sounded nothing other than sad, and for someone like Charlie it was like a stab right through the heart as she found herself with no tools to help.

“… How different was he?”

A genuine curiosity took over, a wonder of how much difference there was between the Angel Dust they both knew. Hell’s princess watched the other’s hands come to a halt, her face looking like she was in deep thought for a few seconds before those hands resumed their previous motion and she started talking.

“He was— an actual angel, just the sweetest person who’d wear his heart on his sleeve. I can’t remember a moment in our lives where he wasn’t my biggest support, even when he was the one that needed it so much more…”

A shaky breath slipped from between her lips as her eyes visibly darkened.

“When I got down here and found him, he was almost exactly as I remembered him to be, only he seemed happier— happy to be himself without repercussions. He would visit me whenever he could, we’d spend hours on recreating recipes mom had taught us, playing music together, he put so much time into trying to get me to pick up dancing again even though I have three left feet now—”

As unreal as it sounded with the hard front Angel tended to put up with everyone, Charlie managed to somewhat imagine what that must’ve been like, to have a brother like that, a smile creeping up at the corners of her lips as she listened.

“—but then Valentino became a bigger influence, started taking up more and more of his time, and I was just watching my brother slip away further into this persona with every visit. He started taking more drugs, started forgetting things, The mask he would wear slowly took over his entire being and I just let it happen, afraid of what it might do if I tried to take it away.”

“So… you made that deal because you feel responsible…?”

“A little…? It’s more that I am waging my soul on the little hope that, while he lost all connection with himself, he still has a little piece of him left that cares for his family.”

The realization that she had laid her very soul into her brother’s hands caused her hands to tremble, not out of fear that he wouldn’t go to the utmost lengths to keep it safe, They had always put their trust in each other and only each other. Molly trusted him with her life, quite literally.

But it was the thought of what her actions were going to put him through that made her shake as badly as she was. Though, with how things had spiraled down so much, perhaps this was the last chance that she’d get to step in.

“I just really miss him…”

\- - -

Angel was still sitting up with his backside against the pillow, arms remaining crossed and one of his feet tapping against the metal frame of the bed in annoyance. Hot pink eyes were fully fixated on the shadow that had casually taken a seat in the exact same spot Alastor had been occupying before, a mirror image of its owner with that grin plastered on its face.

The porn star narrowed his eyes, glaring at it and getting incredibly ticked off when he noticed that grin only getting wider.

“Ya know, ‘s good that you’re not actually here ‘cuz I’d just _hate_ to bust your pretty face in…”

The threat was uttered in a low, aggressive hiss. About every hair that covered the spider’s skin was standing up straight, his subconscious instincts treating Alastor’s shadow as ‘hazardous’ and it did not improve at all when he got a dark chuckle in response before the grand showman himself appeared to be stepping out of his own shadow.

“I would love to see you try.”

That smug expression did absolutely nothing to still the fire that was raging through every vein in Angel’s body, the urge to just pull himself free from the shit he was hooked up to and jump the man, in a completely different way than he’d have imagined himself doing before all this, was building up with every passing second they were in the same space. The arachnid bared his teeth, the one made of gold glistening under the cold LED lights a bit more than his own pearly whites.

“The fuck do ya want outta this anyway? …Get laid? ‘Cuz if it’s my soul, ya best get in fuckin’ line.”

He snarled, feeling the vibrations running all the way down his throat, his hands were clutching the covers as tightly as they possibly could. Angel mentally swore to himself he was going to rip the radio host’s throat apart with his own fucking teeth the very second he heard the bastard dare to let out a laugh that was nothing but mocking in its tone.

“What’s so damn funny?!”

“Purely the fact that you think I am interested in _anything_ you have to offer, my dear.”

Okay. Ouch.   
He wasn’t going to acknowledge that that hurt a little, but the note had been taken, it wasn’t his soul this one was after, surprisingly.

“Then what in the nine circles do ya want?”

“What I have been here for the entire time—”

The redhead gave the slightest of shrugs as his microphone manifested out of nowhere, he let it twirl between his fingers a few times, watching it reflect the scenery around it before setting it down on the floor, arms folded as they leaned on it—bright red eyes staring Angel down and for one of the first times in decades he just felt way too exposed for no apparent reason.

“— _Entertainment._ I just wish to see how desperate a lost cause like yourself can get.”

Of fucking course.

The arachnid was about to give the other a good piece of his mind, he wasn’t too sure on whether the level of unfiltered anger he felt right now would keep his words in a language that was understandable for the strawberry-colored fuckwad, but he couldn’t care less in this moment.

Sadly, the verbal showdown was cut short when Madecine opened the door, her eyes immediately falling on the shards of glass scattered across the floor, the source of it laying facedown and silent as the night in contrast to its usually constant beeping.

Lime green orbs widened as they didn’t even look up to the culprit that was to thank for this massacre of machinery, her lips parted and a glimpse of razor sharp teeth could be seen before her shrieking voice caused Alastor to pretty much vanish into thin air and Angel to wince as he was now left with an annoying ring echoing through his skull.

**_“ANGEL WHAT THE FUCK--?!!!_ ** **_”_ **

****


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> today I ended up finishing all of my commissions, so why not celebrate by tossing the next chapter online?

“Molly, are you sure this is a good idea?”

The doubt in Charlie’s voice was clear for anyone to hear, her eyes going from glancing at the arachnid’s face down to the hands that were within the hotel owner’s grasp, yet her mind had not made up on what would be the best choice right now.

After Angel’s sister had calmed down, she insisted on going back to her brother and make sure he was okay. Normally she would encourage these kinds of things, but in the past half year she has gotten to know Angel Dust, it was worth noting he could often cling on to his anger more than a spider would cling to its web, and from the intensity the siblings ended their previous encounter on, she wasn’t all too sure if she wanted to find out which objects would go flying next.

“Don’t worry, we’ve been through worse fights than this!”

As much as that was meant to assure Charlie, it was doing just about the opposite right now. She just kept following the other at the same pace, still debating on whether to stop her in her tracks or not. Not another word followed from either of the girls until they stood right outside that very same door that had gotten well-acquainted with Molly’s foot earlier today.

“Besides, if we don’t patch things up, he’s going to mentally torment himself over this for days on end.”

A melancholic smile was playing on the spider’s lips, recalling previous times she and her brother had been through the stupidest of quarrels over absolutely nothing. Many times Molly had assumed giving him space was what he needed, and pretty much every time did it leave him more upset than he had already been. It made sense though, for a big part of their lives, Molly was all that he had to lean on.

Bright pink optics turned to glance at the blonde that had been following behind her, as if to search for any kind of objection but finding none as Charlie had backed down and just gave a smile that Molly could only describe as ‘motherly’. Her fluffy chest rose and fell as she took a deep breath and let it all out in a huff before knocking on the door, not waiting for a response as one of her other hands already turned the knob as soon as the last knock tapped against the panel.

Stepping inside, the room was dead silent compared to last time. Even so, with herself included there were three people in the room and let it just be a funny coincidence they all belonged to the same sub-species among demons; arachnids.

Madecine was sitting in the corner of the room that was furthest away from Angel’s bed, legs crossed as well as two pairs of her arms, the top set paging through a magazine, not even acknowledging that Molly had walked in. Meanwhile her brother was glaring daggers at the blue-cladded demon. She could only hope that his obvious foul mood would keep itself directed at the nurse and not shift towards her within the next few minutes.

Thankfully, it appeared that whoever was in charge of their afterlives had mercy on her this time, as a pair of magenta eyes shifted to lock onto her own and instantly softened up when they did. She could see her brother’s lips part to say something, but no words followed, only the slightest frown as he seemed stuck on what to say. All Molly could do in response was give him a reassuring smile before her voice broke through the dead air.

“Hey.”

Her tone was soft, a tone that Angel was more than familiar with, a tone that was more soothing to him than any drug had ever been, and yet he could only remind himself of her words on how he had eventually picked those very same narcotics over her. A rather forced smile of his own bubbled up to mask the guilt that plagued him upon seeing her face, but mostly her eyes that had that very noticeable tint of red at the edges again. Even so, Molly seemed genuinely happy to see him, walking over to the bed and carefully sitting herself down on the edge right next to where Angel’s feet were hidden beneath the covers.

“I’m glad to see you awake.”

As if their previous conversation had never happened, Molly decided to start this over on a better note, unsure if exchanging apologies was even going to get anywhere. Her brother looked like he appreciated this, but had surely taken note of her outburst from earlier as he slowly reached for her hand that was resting on the bed and covered it with his own.

“It’s good to see ya too, Mol.”

Their likeness clearly ran deeper than skin-deep, Molly’s doe eyes tearing up once more as she tried her best to stifle a sob, emotional vulnerability undeniably ran in the family. Even though she was crying, the smile didn’t falter in the slightest, her hand turning underneath Angel’s until her palm was up, fingers carefully wrapping around her brother’s hand as her thumb traced over his knuckles.

It took about a minute of total silence before Angel softly squeezed her hand, and even though her vision was ever so lightly blurred, there was no doubt that her brother was biting his lower lip to keep his own eyes from unleashing the waterworks.

“You’re ruining your makeup.”

He stated almost sheepishly, and Molly clicked her tongue in response, rubbing the streaks of thinned out eyeliner off of her cheeks. In all honesty, she was surprised there was still any left, but then again she never settled for just one single layer when painting her face.

_“Stai zitto, bastardo._ _”_

The foreign words slipped out with a thick accent and a chuckle, drawing a similar sound from the other sibling as he laughed at her response. There was no way in any of the nine circles she would let this slide so easily though;   
  
“At least I’m still wearing some.”

At that, Angel gasped dramatically and placed his free hand over his heart, feigning shock and a hurt expression at Molly’s comeback.

“Ouch, ya really gon’ do me like that??”

The proud look that adorned her face said enough, and with that the white spider dropped his act and slowly shook his head at her, whether it was disappointment, disbelief, both or neither, he’d never tell.

“How bad ‘s it look? Gimme a damage report.”

He flashed her a grin, sharp teeth and all, and for a split second his sister barely covered up the scowl that the presence of that golden shimmer provoked in her. The female arachnid played along with his overdramatic acting and leaned in about as close as she could without causing any discomfort, squinting her eyes as her lips were drawn together in a pout.

“It could be worse!”

“Wow, thanks?”

“Those bags are definitely designer.”

It took about half a second for Angel’s brain to process the joke, but as soon as it landed he downright burst out in laughter, dragging Molly along with him as they tended to be in sync, like people would often assume twins to be, more often than not.

Lime green eyes gazed at the two for quite a while as their cackling echoed through the medical clinic, though shifted back down to their previous point of focus once the noise started dying down. Molly ended her short laughing fit with a relieved sigh, grateful that there didn’t seem to be any tension leftover from their little scuffle. Yet she couldn’t help but to go back to it in thought and before it even registered, the words had already left her mouth;

“I’m sorry for doing this to you…”

The mood instantly shifted, a part of her regretting that she opened her mouth, and another part that knew it had to be brought up if they wanted some kind of closure. Her words were met in silence as the other seemed to be in deep thought, probably contemplating on how to respond to this sudden change in atmosphere.

Angel was lightly grinding his teeth, wanting to be honest with her and just spill everything that was going through his mind out on the table. The anger, the betrayal he felt, even the fear— but he knew they’d end up right back at square one again. He took a deep breath, mentally trying to convince himself that this was needed, that he had gotten himself into this and that whatever the afterlife was throwing at him right now was nothing more or less than a consequence he had coming for decades. There was a voice in his head that tried to tell him the opposite, trying to tell him that he was well in his right to lash out the way he had and he’d be in his right to do it again, a voice that he would have listened to were this not his very own sister sitting in front of him.

By the time his mind had sorted out his possible responses, Molly was looking at him with this anxious expression on her face, her thumb once again moving across the back of his hand, drawing small circles in a comforting way. He responded with another light squeeze before replying;

“Nah, just gonna have to behave a lil’ while— I’ll be fine!”

The attempt at reassuring her worked for about half a second before a voice interrupted their conversation, belonging to none other than the nurse that was still calmly paging through that very same magazine for the entire time she’d been sitting there.

“… Did you establish a time limit when you made the deal?”

The white arachnid leaned sideways in his bed enough to look past his sister, shooting Madecine another quick glare as to tell her to shut up without wasting air on speaking the words. Though whereas Angel seemed unphased by her meddling into the conversation, Molly’s response was one of complete and utter silence, her breath stuck in her throat as her fur appeared to lose its color rather rapidly.

This was enough for her brother to turn his gaze back to her, realize what that reaction meant and how the hellhole he was to be tossed in had no end to it.

A bottomless pit.

The grey-skinned arachnid gave a deep sigh as she closed the magazine, placing it down over the armrest of the chair she occupied, that third set of arms mimicking the other two as they crossed over her chest.

“See, this is exactly why you don’t make deals with him— you might think you’ve got what you want but in the end he’s always the one winning the game…”

The urge to ‘thank’ captain hindsight bubbled up within him, but it was not even the slightest of a match to the overwhelming fear that crashed into him like a tidal wave, and somewhere in the back of his mind there was a small part of him praying it would just drown him all together. With pupils dilated and eyes wide in shock, Angel just stared at his other half, finding himself trying to stutter out her name but his lips couldn’t do nothing but tremble, his hands following suit right after.

Even though Molly had been just as frightened upon realizing the lack of thinking she had gone through when she took the plunge, her somewhat maternal instincts toward her brother took over immediately as she felt his hands starting to shake rather violently.

“It’s okay! Angel, it’s okay! I’m with you---“

The familiarity of this scenario was unsettling to her, but she pushed the thought to the back of her mind, there was no time to think about the past right now. She wrapped another hand around her brother’s, her other set of hands reaching for the one that laid limply on the sheets as all of her fingers gently brushed through the spider’s white fur in the hopes of calming him down.

A few ragged breaths were the only sound he could muster, some sounding closer to a wheeze, like he couldn’t breathe. He tried to concentrate on Molly’s words, on the feeling of her soft fingers running across his hands and sometimes briefly passing his wrists, on her calm voice and the soothing effect it still had that allowed him to get a sentence out, albeit more shaky than he’d anticipated.

“H-how are you so calm?! You’re the one who---- who’s soul is---”

His usual accent had vanished entirely. His throat kept constricting, no matter how much he mentally screamed at himself to calm down, to stop freaking out, it was as if his body was on a whole different frequency. For a moment the arachnid feared of slipping into a severe state of panic, his thoughts going haywire and even though nothing in the room was making a single sound, everything in his head was so unforgivingly loud.

_Until Molly smiled._

Molly smiled, and it was as if a strong gust of wind just blew away every single worry that was plaguing his sanity. His trembling had stopped, his jaws were no longer clenched so tight that it hurt, there was nothing but this minor stinging in his eyes.

“Because I trust you with my life, Angel.”

He was thankful there was no makeup for his tears to stain.

It was thoroughly heartwarming as it was painful to realize just how much his sister loved him.

\- - -

With a loud, scraping noise, Madecine pulled the velcro apart and removed the device from around the arachnid’s arm, giving a positive sounding hum at the numbers on its display as she jotted it down on one of the many forms she’s been filling in since he woke up three days ago.

“Blood pressure seems fine, I think that just about wraps it all up.”

The nurse mumbled to herself, flipping pages on her clipboard a few times before nodding at her own words and rather ungracefully tossing the clipboard onto the nearest table, giving her patient a once-over in a last search for any possible issues, but he was doing significantly better compared to how he had been brought in, so she saw no reason to keep him holed up in the room any longer.

“Looks like you’re good to go. Now, remember---”

“---Yeah yeah, no heavy drinkin’ or doin’ anythin’ that could fuck with the painkillers, ya told me plenty ‘o times by now.”

Angel had been given the same instructions for three days straight, to say the very same sentences were haunting him in his sleep by now would be an understatement. His somewhat agitated response was brushed off by Madecine with a firm roll of the eyes before she went over to fetch the change of clothes Molly had dropped off the day before, putting them at the edge of the bed as her eyes made contact with the other’s in a rather firm gaze.

“Be happy I managed to get our ‘buddy’ to lay low until your arms have regenerated or you’d be having more to worry about than just your physical health.”

That was the part that still confused the spider demon, in more ways than one.

First of all the fact that Madecine, who had probably been more appalled by his constantly medicated state than anyone else in this building, had gone up to none other than the radio demon himself to make a compromise on letting her administer a light dose of PCP with those painkillers until he was through the healing process.   
But the most confusing thing was that the fucker had actually _let her_.

“How’d ya even get ‘im to agree to that?”

His hands drifted to the outfit that laid neatly folded next to him, fingers tracing the edges of the fabric absentmindedly as he mentally thanked his sister for picking out something showy and not one of the many, _many_ oversized shirts and sweaters that were his go-to comfort wear. He’d like to keep up some reputation for just a little bit longer, if only for the sake of avoiding an ocean of questioning looks and possibly actual questions in general.

“Easy, I just told him watching you gradually lose your mind would be a lot more enjoyable than having you plummet into a deep depression that would cause you to lock yourself into your room within days.”

The words came out so casually it took Angel’s brain a moment to process on whether he had actually heard that correctly or not. Of course the thought of withdrawal was plaguing his mind on the daily now, but mentally he still had yet to come to terms with the whole situation, a part of him fearful for what was to come. He’s been through the symptoms before, naturally, but it had always been a brief amount of time. What he feared wasn’t what he knew he’d be going through, more so it was the unknown part of it that caused him to tighten his grip on the striped blazer.

“… Why?”

It had slipped out before he even realized, eyes staring at the floor beneath him as his feet dangled barely an inch above it. The blue nurse gave a rather exasperated sigh as she began to rummage through a drawer in one of the many cabinet files that were strewn about the room in a disorganized fashion.

“Because unlike him, I don’t get off on seeing people suffer.”

Angel barely caught himself in time to stop the snicker that was bubbling up from his throat, instead letting out the quietest of a choked noise (dare he call it a snort?). There was not a single denizen of hell that would call this thing between them anything close to friendship, but at least it seemed like the blue arachnid had loosened up a little bit around him compared to her previous attitude.

That, or she was just doing her job and putting her personal opinions aside to do so. Either way, the mood in the room was a lot more pleasant now that they weren’t trying to glare each other into the next world.

“And unlike you, I am actually here to try and redeem myself.”

He could tell that was a jab at him, the faintest hint of annoyance in her voice. Way to kill that relatively good mood just when he was starting to appreciate it. The rustling of plastic drew his attention away from the conversation though, as he watched her pull out a zip-lock bag with some of his belongings, including his hellphone, out before shutting the drawer once more.

Angel couldn’t even utter a single syllable before Madecine tossed the bag at him, forcing him to pause getting dressed in his normal attire to catch it, the hospital robe already shoved aside as if it was going to give him some contagious disease to even so much as touch it any longer.

“Here, stupid thing was making a whole fuck-ton of noise the day after you got here—might want to get it charged and see what the ruckus was about.”

No response followed, the prostitute just getting dressed at a rapid tempo now, his heartbeat thudding loudly in his chest at the thoughts of what he’d be confronted with upon viewing his messages. Madecine decided not to comment on his sudden silence and instead handed him a small box containing painkillers, waiting for Angel to take it from her hands before she spoke up once more.

“There’s only enough in there to last you a day so be mindful, I’ll refill it tomorrow when you’ve got your check up.”

A million things were going through his mind, a good dozen of possible responses he could give. A part of him wanted to just scream at her, throw the container against any surface hard enough for it to split apart on impact, the rebellious side of him just itching to retaliate in the few ways he had left and regain control of his own life.

Instead, he calmly thanked her, zipping up his boots all the way up to his thighs, pools of magenta lingering on the empty sleeves of his jacket that he had turned inside out as to not have two useless flaps of fabric swaying at his sides at all times.

Without any further exchange, he left the medical clinic for the first time in what had apparently been almost three weeks at this point. Thankfully he hadn’t been awake to register most of it, or he would have definitely gotten sick and tired of that room enough to throw himself out a window by a means of escape.

He could already tell he was considerably more sober than he’d normally be, the sounds around the hotel being significantly clearer to a point where he was sure sticking around the more noisy areas would grace him with a headache faster than he could mutter out any kind of profanity. As much as he’d want to go down to the bar, get a drink and see how long it would take for his favorite bartender to be utterly done with his shit and attempt to drink himself into a coma, he knew there’d be no rest in his mind until he had checked his phone.

That, and the chances of running into Charlie and her bodyguard of a girlfriend was something he’d love to postpone for maybe a day or two if possible.

Upon opening the door, the gentle scent of lavender became apparent immediately and he instantly knew Molly had been there, since she always had some peculiar affinity with anything that had such a scent to it. The white arachnid flicked on the lights in his room, noting it to be in pretty much the same state as it always was, apart from the way that clothing he had just tossed onto any random surface (with the idea of cleaning up later), now laid neatly folded in small stacks on his boudoir. The whole place looked like it had been dusted and tidied up, it was as if it was left untouched aside from that.

A quick check on the usual hiding spots for his stash proved that thought wrong though, as every single one of them was cleared from any drugs he had stowed away in there. There was no reason to hide the scowl that crept onto his features, so he didn’t, he had told his sister of all the shit he had hidden around here after all. A room search was to be expected, and if anyone had to be the one to do it, Angel was glad it was someone that he knew he could trust not to fuck around with any of his stuff, take anything that wasn’t theirs to take, or even worse— start berating him on whatever else he might be doing ‘wrong’ in his afterlife.

The ruckus caused by the spider demon rummaging around had woken up the only other occupant in the room, making itself audible with a slightly startled snort before the sound of hooves on carpet and then floorboard became audible. Angel hadn’t even seen a glimpse of his pet yet, but already got down on his knees before the little, pink bundle of pig turned around the corner of the bed and locked eyes with its owner, eyes noticeably going wide before it set off into a sprint and practically dove onto the fluffy spider’s lap.

A noise that was relatively close to a scream left Angel’s lips as his one pair of arms lifted Fat Nuggets right up to the fluffiest part of his body, holding onto the little thing as if his life depended on it. The gesture clearly went appreciated by the way the tiny pig nuzzled into the white fur and let out a content huff once it was comfortable.

“Missed ya too, Nugs…”

It took just about every ounce of willpower not to start crying right then and there, sleeping in a bed with no tiny ball of warmth cuddling up to you was absolutely horrendous and certainly not something he’d be willing to do again. There were many good reasons he had never slept over at any john’s place, the lack of Fat Nuggets being one of them.

Angel just stayed on the floor like that until his knees started to ache, taking the chance to get up and drop himself onto the large bed with a silent ‘oof’ accompanied by a muffled squeak coming from Nuggets who still remained buried in fur. The spider reached into the pocket of his jacket, fishing out his hellphone as he placed it on the wireless charging pad that was on his nightstand, having to bring out his bottom set of arms to be able to reach it now that the middle pair had been taken ‘out of commission’ for the time being.

‘About a month’ Madecine had estimated, informing him that his body had done little to no healing in the time he had been unconscious and busy on coming back from the dead. Thankfully, in the two days after waking up, the wounds where his arms had previously been had closed up and healed enough for the stitches to be taken out, so now it was just a matter of patience.

Being back in his own room, with his own pig bundled up in his arms, the exhaustion was really starting to settle in. It took a minute or two before Angel found the willpower to push himself upright, glancing over to all the pillows neatly stacked and laying against the headboard as they tempted him into taking a short nap while his phone was charging. Angel Dust had never been good at saying ‘no’ to temptation, and nearly threw himself into the sea of cushions, pillows and plushies before a small, folded up note on one of the many soft headrests caught his eye.

He reached out with one of his lower arms, top pair still too busy holding Fat Nuggets in place, and unfolded it rather carefully, the handwriting instantly recognizable and bringing a smile to his face.

_‘Hi Angie._

_I hope you_ _’re feeling well now that you_ _’re back!  
As you might_ _’ve noticed, I cleaned up a little bit,  
hope you don_ _’t mind.  
I did the room search as told, took nothing else   
though we have got to talk about some of these   
dresses and what I have to do for you to let me  
borrow them, geesh!  
  
Text me when you read this, I_ _’ll try to drop by!  
  
Xxx- Molly  
Ps. Sorry if I overfed Nuggets ~~a little~~ a lot_ _…’_

A chuckle slipped from his lips at her last sentence, hands fiddling with Nuggets a little as if to judge on whether he had gotten rounder or not. A motion that got two tiny, beady eyes to peek out from white fluff and make the spider’s smile even wider. A quick glance at his phone was all that kept him from dropping his head onto the pillows, mentally noting to himself that he’d let Molly know of his ‘somewhat freedom’ once he’d awoken from a quick catnap.

The note was gently placed aside before the arachnid curled up on his bed, pig safely tucked between his arms as he drifted off the second he closed his eyes.

\- - -

A ‘quick’ catnap turned out to be a little longer than he had anticipated and definitely would’ve turned into a full-on slumber had it not been for Nuggets and its excitement over having its owner back. It had started with the tiny pig wiggling itself out of Angel’s grasp and trotting about on the bed a short while, but soon enough it began to nudge at the sleeping form of the arachnid, waking him rather abruptly when a cold and wet snoot was pressed right at the back of his neck, causing Angel to sit upright within milliseconds, Fat Nuggets innocently plopping itself onto his lap and seemingly proud of its success.

Angel rubbed the back of his neck as another one of his hands automatically started petting the little porker, getting soft oinks and occasional snorts in response. Moving the hand from his neck to gingerly rub one of his eyes, the white spider let a yawn slip out, a free hand reaching for the phone and turning it on without much of a thought. The screen initially turned a bright white as the device was starting up, but soon enough the lock screen appeared, the background being a bombardment of pink-tinted hearts as Angel absentmindedly unlocked the device only to get a barrage of notifications that were being loaded in.

He tried to follow along at first, but every time he’d read about five or six words of one, it was already being shoved down by another. Getting on his nerves soon enough, the demon just opened up his text messages and tapped his sister’s name, not even bothering to look at the rest of the names that had unread messages, as much as it was going against his curiosity. He scrolled through the messages slowly, feeling guilt at the first few that were from when she had gotten that call two weeks back, clearly, as the wording was very unstructured and one could easily tell just how upset she had been typing all of this.

There was that heavy weight in his stomach again, though thankfully it subsided once Molly’s messages turned back to reflect her usual positive attitude, short texts of how she spend the days with Fat Nuggets, little remarks on how people at the hotel were so nice and she was glad he was staying there, and so on and so on. Angel found himself reading a few of his favorites more than once, her excitement was contagious in a way and effortlessly brought out this calm smile on his own face.

After texting Molly like he had told himself to, the rest of the message threads were skimmed through one by one. Some were unknown numbers, a few were from previous clients asking for him again and even a small number of texts from the girls at the studio who still checked in with him from time to time— which was nice.

Then there was a whole heap of text from Cherri in which she started off asking whether Val had taken his phone away or something, then went on a whole rant of the things she would, could and probably should do to him, including the threat to ‘blow his mind’ in a different way, which put some amusing visuals in the arachnid’s brain if he were to be honest. There was a whole section devoted to news about the turf war she had gotten herself involved in, but he couldn’t really focus on it enough to decipher everything that had been going on during his absence.

[‘Bitch, call me im too lazy 2 type all this shit.’]

He sent her in a quick text before going back through the rest of his inbox.

To say that anxiety crawled back into every fiber of his body when he got to the oldest message, would be the understatement of the century. Angel tried to keep his hand from trembling as he tapped on the one name he dreaded to see in the list the most; _Valentino_.

He knew it wasn’t going to be any good news. With everything that had gone down in the past half year, the porn star knew his luck by now with his boss, knew he had already been lucky quite a number of times in the past— but that runs out at some point, that became evident as bright pink eyes couldn’t break away from the letters on the small screen.

It was as if someone was squeezing his throat, tighter and tighter the longer he stared at the message. He couldn’t swallow, could barely breathe as images flashed through his mind, skin tingling where bruises had been and downright burning around the place his arms would be regenerating eventually.

Angel knew better than anyone he had made some mistakes, bad calls if you may call them that. Had he just swallowed his pride when he had the chance, things wouldn’t have gotten so fucked up, this whole thing with his sister getting involved probably wouldn’t even have happened. Some would say he had come out pretty okay, considering how cases of insubordination were usually handled in his line of work.   
Yet, he should’ve known going behind Valentino’s back would’ve been the last straw.

[--The next time you try a stunt like that, it won’t stop at just _two_ arms.--]

He had never been so happy to see Cherri’s name pop up on the screen as he was right now, taking the call and pushing all his thoughts to the back of his mind as soon as her voice came through the speaker.

_“Good to know you_ _’re alive, dipstick!_ _”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I'm pretty sure most of you had a hunch on who was behind that huh?  
> I promise next chapter I'll dump some clarity in here 👌


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick moment for me to take all the blame for this delay, my dumb ass has taken up on writing another fic next to this one bc I gave in to my cravings for a (somewhat) plotheavy A/B/O fic... so be on the look-out for that I guess(?) and considering the brief summary is already over 13.000 characters--- _be prepared_...
> 
> Next to that I'm also in the process of getting a 3-minute animatic done and, like a genius, spent the last week and half fighting the flu that I caught 👌
> 
> With all those excuses out of the way, have the longest chapter so far--

The sound of sharp nails tapping against wood had never been so stressful as it was right now. Yet, when it turned into a rather aggressive scraping, leaving deep claw marks on the surface of the desk, Angel had wished those nails had just remained on their previous tapping.

“Angie baby… how many times do we have to go over this?”

How many times indeed. The spider didn’t have enough hands to count on just how many times he had been in this exact same room, in the exact same situation, about to receive the exact same talk he’s heard oh so many times before. And yet, it proved, he never truly listened.

“Oh come on Val, ‘t wasn’t like I was doin’ anythin’ I haven’t done before—”

“That is exactly the problem, sweetheart. You keep on disobeying me—”

Angel hated that tone of voice, like he was some kind of pet that had trashed its owner’s place while they were out. Truth be told, perhaps there were some similarities with that every now and then, but that still didn’t make it any less aggravating to be spoken to in such a way.

“—and my patience is starting to run _real thin_ …”

Okay, in retrospect, the threatening tone wasn’t any better. The white arachnid took the slightest of steps backwards, increasing the distance between himself and his boss as one set of his arms wrapped around his middle in a defensive, perhaps more so protective, gesture.

“I’m just tryin’ to pay off my debts, isn’t that what ya want me to do?!”

His voice came out a lot more fragile than he had intended, but still carried that trademark bite it would have whenever he felt cornered, an instinctive reaction more than anything. Valentino didn’t seem all too pleased with this tone, he never had been, the response most likely wasn’t what he had wanted to hear either.

“Angie Angie, you do the work that I tell you to do. If everyone just starts doing jobs as they please, things will turn into chaos, don’t you think?”

The ridiculously tall overlord was smiling, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out it was nothing but a fake front. In the past Angel might’ve already backed out of the discussion in submission, would’ve just nodded and blindly agreed with whatever Val was saying, regardless of his own opinion on the matter. Of course he knew all too well that whatever words the other spewed were to keep employees under his thumb, even if that obvious fact had taken way too long for him to realize over the many years he had spent in this place.

Perhaps he had finally found that last straw now that he was, once more, in this all too familiar situation.

“But I could be doin’ so much more, ya know I can, ya saw that!—“

Ah, there was those nails tapping again. A part of him recognized it as a signal to stop talking, but out of all things that made Angel who he was, stubbornness was a very outstanding trait that had won many mental battles, and seemed set on taking this one as well.

“I know what I’m doin’, Val, just lemme take care o’ shit like this!”

Silence.  
It was as if time stood still as magenta orbs tried to read between the lines on the other’s expression to get more than just the simple conclusion that he was far beyond agitated with his star employee. That masking smile had vanished and been traded for a scowl, damn close to teeth being bared as Valentino let a low hiss escape between those sharp incisors.

“Let you ‘take care of shit’? Sugar, you can barely take care of yourself, this debt you’ve built up is proof enough of that.”

It was hard to tell whether the overlord was legitimately amused with his own words, or just deliberately trying to get under Angel Dust’s skin more than he already was. He was a grown fucking adult, of course he could take care of himself! Just because he allowed himself to be pampered and taken care of didn’t mean he was suddenly some incapable child needing to be supervised and kept under house arrest—no, scratch that—‘studio arrest’.

“I can take care of myself just fine…”

The words were mumbled under his breath more than anything, but loud enough for Valentino to catch them loud and clear. There was a moment of hesitation noticeable in the overlord’s mannerisms, a debate in his mind on whether he should retaliate and sit in this exact same spot one week from now, like they had been for the past month or so. Or perhaps, he would humor himself, let the spider find out just how much he depended on him without having to lift a single finger to do so.

The choice wasn’t hard to make.

“Is that so? Very well then—”

The sudden shift to a much lighter ambiance was concerning more than it was relieving, and Angel just knew that whatever idea he had just triggered in his employer’s brain, it didn’t look like it was going to spell out anything good for him.

Valentino snapped his fingers twice as the guards that had previously been standing by the door now approached the porn star, gently grabbing him by his upper arms as they awaited instructions. Simultaneously, Angel himself awaited an explanation on just exactly what the fuck was going through the other’s mind.

“Escort Angel Cakes to his room and help him pack up, would you?”

“… Pack up? For what?!”

The wicked grin that spread across Valentino’s lips had the spider’s entire spine feeling like it had turned to ice, pretty sure the slight hues of rose pink in his fur had been drained as well. Bright pink eyes followed the lanky form that slowly crept up closer towards him.

“Since you’re so convinced you can take care of yourself and do as you please—"

A sharp claw placed itself beneath his chin, ever so carefully drawing a line down his neck and back up, scratching the skin beneath his fur but not enough to break it.

“—I’m evicting you from your room at the studio until your debt is paid off.”

There weren’t enough profanities in existence to put into words the hellish screeching that echoed inside Angel’s head at those words.

\- - -

Fast forward to about three weeks from that point and one would find Angel having dug his grave from about six feet deep to a whopping twenty feet, figuratively. Even if he were to up the drug use to a point of nearly overdosing, it would still not be enough to mentally drown out the shit he had gotten himself into now.

Not only did that whole turf war fiasco get him two broads breathing down his neck at every move (one more so than the other, but still), it also partially caused for another fucking overlord to make himself at home in Angel’s everyday life. Granted, this one wanted little to nothing to do with him personally, but that didn’t mean he was overjoyed with it. Add to that the rather repulsed reaction to their first interaction, albeit perhaps not being the best choice of a response on Angel’s part, and it was just one big package of irony dropped on his head.

He hadn’t even gotten the chance to get in trouble with this second overlord, supposedly ‘one of the most powerful beings Hell has ever seen’, or the first one was already on his ass again for the umpteenth time in the span of a month.

It started with the reminder of the needed payment, which Angel was well aware of being due as he had been so kindly reminded of it nearly every passing day since he got his ass kicked out. Though as time progressed the spider could just feel himself sinking into that figurative grave from before, deeper and deeper.

As it turns out, Valentino watches the news.

And whereas Alastor seemed highly amused by the idea of a hotel for redemption, Val was about the exact opposite of that. In fact, it took no effort to tell from the elaborate wall of text (and the lack of his usual pet names in it) that came in later that day just how absolutely livid the overlord was with him, and a tiny part of him was glad that he had been kicked out so he wouldn’t be facing this anger in real (after)life.

The arachnid had been eyeing the messages over and over again. Mostly because after skimming over it the first time and realizing the severity of the situation, it had spiked so many of his emotions that it required about double the usual dose of powder to numb that shit down, and now reading that same text was like trying to follow a German movie with no subtitles--- _nearly impossible_.

[--I guess I ‘ve been too forgiving with you by merely kicking you out of your room--]  
[--Had you just admitted to your mistakes, I’d have allowed you back in a heartbeat--]  
[--But of course you had to be fucking stubborn--]  
[--From this point on, _I_ _’ll_ be deciding when you’ll be welcome to return--]  
[--Not just to the studio, but to the district as a whole--]  
[--Enjoy the free room, you’re going to need it--]  
[--Next payment is due at the end of the week--]  
[--Don’t keep me waiting and _don_ _’t_ go looking for any more easy ways out--]  
[--You won’t like the price tag it has--]

Within less than two seconds the porn star had tried to check in on his scheduled gigs, only to find himself locked out of the system entirely. He was also well acquainted enough with Val’s wording of things to know that he could consider himself pretty much double dead if he’d so much as set foot on the overlord’s territory.

_Shit._

This really wasn’t his day, and it was looking like that was going to be a repetitive mood for the oncoming months until Valentino decided he’d had enough, or Angel was reduced to a desperate enough mess that he’d come crawling on all eights, kissing the roach’s feet and then some. Which he _definitely_ was not planning on doing at any point in time, thank you very much.

All in all, he tried to remind himself it could be worse.

Sure, he now had to take business to areas where Val had no power to provide any sort of protection. Sure, he had lost his main source of income and narcotics. Sure, he was up to his non-existent nose in debt and sure, he had eyes on him with every move from this point on, 24/7.

Who was he kidding? He was majorly and royally fucked—and wouldn’t even get paid for it.

\- - -

Angel had no knowledge on what asshole started the whole idea that ‘being your own boss is great’, but he sure hoped that whoever it was died a slow, agonizing death and had found themselves in this same dump of a hellhole for spouting bullshit like that. Being your own boss _sucked_ , and he would consider himself an expert on that.

It had been over three months since the whole fiasco with the hotel.  
Three months of trying to scrape together money where possible. Not only to keep Valentino from coming over to fetch him and turn this shitstorm into a hurricane, but also because he’d be damned to give that insect the satisfaction of knowing just how desperate things had gotten. Not having to worry over paying for a room and the necessities to live was a plus, but there was still this thought gnawing at the back of his mind that, perhaps, he should’ve just played his role, listened and been obedient.

While he’d still make enough to pay off this debt that was looming over him like a pitch black cloud, the work it required was mentally and physically burying him alive slowly but surely. Whereas he’d previously get out for his job a few days of the week, it had now come to a point where a day’s rest was something that he could only afford to dream of. It would be a lot easier if he actually had been laying off the drugs, like he would tell Charlie he was time and time again, but with every additional bit of stress he was putting on himself, the need to become numb to it all increased along with it.

To add onto it all, it really seemed like something had it out for him and wanted to see just how much more pressure would have to be applied before he’d break.

Wreaking havoc with Cherri had become a lot more frequent as of late. While it was a great way to blow of steam, his main reason for it all was that if they’d cause enough chaos, he’d find himself on the news again. He had to keep himself relevant somehow now that Val, the _absolute sweetheart_ that he was, decided to have a new showpony to prance around with. The conflict that it triggered inside Angel’s mind was agitating to say the least, the arachnid unsure of what emotion had the upper hand; the feeling of jealousy over being replaced, the anger that boiled up when he realized this was just another one of those manipulation tactics to get under his skin, or the feeling of abandonment that he couldn’t seem to get rid off no matter how out of this world he was.

He had wanted to scream, cry, _bash that showpony_ _’s skull in with a brick_ —but it never happened. It was as if a part of him had shut down entirely, closing itself off behind a wall along with all the emotions that were just bottling up. Weirdly enough, it was something that felt so familiar too.

Naturally, getting into trouble more meant getting reprimanded more the second he would take a single step back into the hotel again. Whenever it was Vaggie he couldn’t get himself to care much, mostly because the girl would already blow a fuse if he so much as breathed wrong in her vicinity. Charlie, however, was a different story.

Her constantly (although sometimes forced) positive attitude was still something that he could do without at certain times, but no matter how many times he had screwed things up, she was still there and reminded him of that every day as her expression of worry. Not once had she kicked him to the curb or threatened with eviction, even though he was well aware it was being suggested to her. Charlie was, in a way, a lot like his sister—and that just made this whole ‘don’t get attached’ mantra he kept repeating in his head so much harder.

Speaking of his sister, he should really call her at some point. The visits he used to make rather frequently to the first circle had been put on hold ever since this nightmare started. To tell her that he could no longer afford it would set off a tidal wave of other questions he really was not ready for nor keen on answering. Molly was the kind of sibling to throw herself into a pit of fire for him, they very clearly were twins on that part, but that did not mean he would let her do so.

The less she knew, the better.

That’s how Angel’s days were. Even now—after another month having passed, and slowly but surely the thought of calling Val and giving in to this stupid game he seemed to be playing was getting more and more tempting.

His mind was going over every little detail of the situation again and again and again, while his body was playing a role it knew all too well. Long, slim legs draped over the shoulders of some stranger as the sounds he’d force from his throat were almost loud enough to drown out the thought of whether or not he’d even get paid after this. It had become a gamble these days, sometimes a lot more risky than he’d remember it to be decades ago when he first got here. Then again, there had been a significant influx of demons over the years, and from how some of them were it sure seemed like life on earth hadn’t improved all that much either.

It wasn’t until after he was back on the streets, money carefully stashed away inside the inner pocket of his blazer, did he realize how he just spent his last hour having sex and he hadn’t even particularly enjoyed a single second of it, his mind too busy wallowing in that thick cloud of negativity. Granted the guy had no fucking idea what he was doing either. When you bend a person’s legs back _so_ far they start to feel like a damn calzone pizza—you might as well just stop all together.

Angel held up a hand to his forehead, letting out a low groan as he could already feel another headache coming up, and he knew very well what was the cause of that and this negative slump he was in right now. This was about to be another day where he’d find himself having to make the choice between going back to the hotel and paying off another part of his debt before tomorrow, or easing his mind and body with the narcotics they were so desperately screaming for and spending the rest of the night trying to get back the money he’d have to spend.

Another option was to find someone willing to pay him in drugs, but that would be betting on some sort of luck that fate seemed unwilling to give him as of late.

And yet, as much as he knew lady luck hadn’t walked with him for quite a while, he felt the unconscious need to test it mere minutes later, a now half-empty bag of PCP in his pocket as the half that had been consumed started chasing off the thoughts in his head—the whispers of voices telling him that he was going to regret this decision. He couldn’t care less right now, feeling a lot more calm and simultaneously having gotten a sudden burst of energy. For a brief moment the last bit of clarity in his brain reminded him that he’d have to make up for the money he had spent, though it sure had been worth it with how any bit of weight felt like it had been lifted off his shoulders.

The spider fetched his hellphone out of that same inner pocket that now carried the last bits of cash he had acquired earlier, scrolling through his long list of contacts as an idea had popped up in his mind. Slender fingers tapped an all too familiar name; ‘Damien’. The dial tone let itself be known, ringing twice before the call was picked up on the other side and Angel made sure to amp up the sultry tone of his voice a little extra just to catch this big fish on his hook;

_“Hey babe, ya missed me-?_ _”_

Truth be told when regular clients would offer their number to him, he’d always decline. Mostly because the regulars were people that were in cahoots with Val in one way or another, and the idea that he’d be getting called out of his bed in the middle of the night because some sad John was feeling lonely after his wife kicked him out—yeah no, he was pretty certain he did not have the patience for that, and of course whatever response he would give that wasn’t pleasing enough would be handed to Val on a silver platter.  
A platter that _he_ would later get his face shoved into like some misbehaving dog.

This guy was the only exception, for a number of reasons.  
One, he knew what the fuck he was doing, that was always appreciated. Two, his relationship with Val was probably the least important one out of the whole list. And three, the guy _always_ tipped generously and made sure Valentino knew none of it. In other words, he would keep his mouth shut if Angel played his cards right, _and_ he wouldn’t even have to put much effort into faking things!

One would almost say this sounded to good to be true.

\- - -

Honestly, when things sound too good to be true, they usually _are_ too good to be true.

Damien, who might as well consider himself Angel’s favorite customer at this point, had been an absolute doll and had sent a personal driver to come and pick him up. It wasn’t like the place was that far off, but not having to navigate his way through the district without running into any of Val’s heel-lickers went greatly appreciated at this point.

Once at the mansion he’d been allowed to get himself freshened up with a nice, long bath, finding most of his time spent in there had gone to sniffing every bottle of soap before eventually picking a few to use. Why people thought that a shitload of foreign words on a bottle would make it seem more expensive, he didn’t know and frankly, he wasn’t going to complain about it either.

Angel had let himself soak for a good while, the warmth of the water making a notable attempt at relaxing muscles in his body that had been sore for days by now. He leaned his head back against the edge of the tub, watching steam rise up to the ceiling and seemingly circling around the overly fancy chandelier that was hanging way high above him. For a brief moment he wished time would just freeze for a little while, allowing him to enjoy this peace, quiet and relaxation just a little longer, though soon enough the water was getting cold and the arachnid found himself carefully stepping out with the slightest of scowls.

Angel spent the next half hour meticulously drying off his fur, magenta hues watching intently how the water started draining from the bathtub.

Coming out of the bathroom, positively smelling like a mixture between a bouquet of wildflowers and a fruit basket, the spider had made himself comfortable next to his client on the sinfully soft sheets of the bed. Damien had always been a cuddly type, way too soft to make Angel think he belonged down here, but perhaps there was another side to this guy he just never got to see. Knowing he was in some way, shape or form in business with Val, he had to have some polar opposite personality in there somewhere, even if it was only a persona just like his own.

While Angel Dust had no objections in regards to the slow build-up he was used to with this guy, particularly finding himself endeared by being treated like he was some fragile, little thing—it surely didn’t take long before he had to take the reigns in his own hands to get some progress going. After all, he really needed that money and while he was no stranger to spending the night here (another one of those things Damien was an exception to), he’d rather take those last few hours before morning to huddle up on his own bed, preferably with a certain pet piggy snuggling up against him.

Damien seemed rather surprised when Angel had started dressing himself again, one of his brows arched questioningly as he waited for the prostitute to finish buttoning up his blazer before speaking.

“You’re not staying?”

“Not this time, tiger— I got things to do in the morning.”

That was a lie, as nice and luxurious as this place was he’d be better off keeping his time within Valentino’s district to as much of a minimum as possible. The spider quickly checked his phone, no messages, good. Everything that he had shoved in his many pockets was still there, also good.

“Are you sure? It’s none of my business but you look absolutely exhausted…”

Ever the gentleman, he’d be perfect boyfriend material if he didn’t already have three wives. Oh well, relationships were kind of lost on Angel to begin with, he’d been in this business too long for something like that to actually work out and not turn into some paranoid bozo breathing down his neck about his occupation and undoubtedly his past along with that.

“I’ll be sure to take a quick catnap later if it makes ya feel better~”

While he could easily see the hesitation in his client’s expression, his answer thankfully doesn’t get questioned any further as the other redirects his focus to the clothing on the floor, fetching a wallet from the back pocket of his previously discarded jeans and tugging out a relatively impressive amount of bills, holding them out for Angel to take and make a quick mental count of just how much he is holding.

“Here. Don’t know why Valentino is insisting on payment in cash this time, but I know better than to question it.”

The spider stared at the bundle of cash between his fingers in disbelief for a few more seconds before tucking it away safely and giving Damien a thankful smile. He wondered why the other had given him about twice as much this time, but if that’s what was considered his worth then he’d wisely keep his lips sealed.

“You and me both, babe.”

The slightest pang of guilt over lying (even when it was something as small as this) reminded Angel of just how much Charlie’s ways had started rubbing off on him bit by bit, he should really be more mindful of that—maybe. He pushed that same feeling back into the pit it crawled out of, reasoning with himself that being truthful was too big a risk. After all, he knew very well how Valentino would deal with anyone going behind his back—Angel was sure that he would be no exception to that regardless of the guy having a soft spot for him somewhere in that tiny pebble he’d call a heart.

He headed out the door, about to pull it shut behind him when he heard Damien’s voice call out one last time.

“Tell Jasper to drive you back to the hotel.”

Angel’s smile widened and he gave the slightest roll of his eyes before closing the door and making his way out of the (way too oversized) manor. As much as this visit had been for business only, the spider found himself feeling a whole lot better than a few hours ago. Tired, yes—but better.

The whole duration of the car ride back to the hotel, Angel found himself fighting off sleep, trying to focus on just about anything he’d see passing by as to keep his eyes open. Blinking had slowly but surely become a risk after a while, and when they got to the establishment he might as well be calling ‘home’ by now, the cold breeze woke him up enough to hide the most obvious signs of fatigue.

The second he set foot into the building he could already hear Vaggie’s voice ricocheting off the walls in an endless rant on curfews and whatnot. He had stopped listening to them, maybe he would bother with it if they were to listen to _him_ whenever he’d tell them it’d be a late return and to _not_ wait up for him.

Stubborn, every single soul in this hotel, including himself.

While Angel crawled into bed, Fat Nuggets in tow as the pink porker cozily nuzzled itself into white fur, Valentino found himself receiving a rather unexpected call.

_“… Damien_ _—now what could you possibly want?_ _”_

_“… Tell me, when was the last time you gave Angel a day off?_ _”_

\- - -

_‘Perhaps we should take some weight off those shoulders_ _—'_

Those words had echoed through his head non-stop for the past few minutes, a stupid and rather dull joke that Angel was sure he could’ve laughed at had it not been _him_ in this situation. No, all he could feel right now was a mix of unfiltered anger and fear as he noticed his consciousness slowly slipping from his grasp.

There was a weight on his back, he could still tell that much, holding him down against the ground, the rough surface of concrete tiles scraping against the side of his face where his white fur was thinnest. He could hear them talking, though finding it hard to focus on what they were saying as with every little movement he made there was a hand at the back of his head, shoving him down more firmly, the pressure on his spine intensifying and causing more blood to spill out of open wounds—he wondered for a brief moment just how different it would feel to die from blood loss compared to an overdose.

With one of his eyes still open, bright magenta having dulled down significantly, Angel caught a glimpse of one of the demons standing around him, the guy fishing a phone out of his back pocket. Everything sounded muffled, the arachnid closing his eyes and trying to focus on just listening—which became a whole lot easier once he managed to calm himself enough to quiet down the heartbeat drumming loudly through his body.

It took a few seconds for the call to connect, but eventually a voice could be heard from the other side of the line—and if he hadn’t already been expecting it, the familiarity of that voice would’ve made his heart sink a lot more than it did.

_“…You got it done?_ _”_

Angel suppressed a huff in amusement, mostly to not trigger any kind of aggressive response from this bunch of goons. He should’ve known from the get-go that going behind Valentino’s back wasn’t as easy as it had seemed to be, guess he had himself to blame for hoping he had just been lucky that night.

“Wasn’t easy, but he’s been a lot more docile after gettin’ his arms ripped out—”

_“—you WHAT?!_ _”_

The spider didn’t need that phone to be on speaker for the loud screech of Val’s voice to reach him, the suppressed huff from before now slipping from his lips in a light snicker, the weight on his back increasing once again, but at this point he couldn’t say he cared about it much. He could hear how the demon handling the phone clicked his tongue in annoyance, whether that was at Val or his own response—he’d probably get to figure that one out soon enough. There were footsteps approaching him, the bits of gravel beneath them scraping loudly before it stopped, Angel supposed now inches away from his face.

“Ain’t that what y’ asked for?”

_“I said_ _‘roughen him up_ _’, that_ _’s a whole lot different from fucking mutilating him!_ _”_

“Yeah well—”

The feeling of a boot being pressed down on his cheek finally got the spider to open one of his eyes, glaring at its owner and marginally baring his teeth as the guy put more of his weight on that very foot.

“—Y’ also didn’t tell me he can be _feisty_ … lil’ shit broke my nose ‘n some of m’ brother’s ribs!”

Ah yes, he vaguely remembered that. Couldn’t say they weren’t just serving him the opportunity on a silver platter, the smaller one of the two having been in perfect range for his legs to kick him right in the chest. And then the supposed taller brother being the absolute genius to grab a hold of one of his gloves rather than his arms, allowing his hand to slip out and deck the fucker right in the face. For a group of three, they sure only had been a threat and able to get him down because of that very number.

Angel flashed the man a proud grin as their eyes locked, already lacking any fuck’s to give to keep his mouth shut from blurting out his thoughts.

“Not like your face was all that appealin’ to begin with, sugar~”

A snarl combined with a firm kick to the face was his answer, notably a lot less painful than he had expected it to be, but then again he was kind of walking the line between life and death currently. There was an audible sigh coming from the other side of the line which, thankfully, caused for ‘the demon with the fucked up nose’ to stop after that one kick, firmly placing his foot back down as he turned his annoyance back to Valentino.

“Consider the maimin’ a personal payment.”

_“…Very well then, just make sure to drop him off at that eyesore of a hotel._ _”_

“That _wasn_ _’t_ part of the deal.”

_“Do it or that_ _‘personal payment_ _’ will be your ONLY payment_ _…”_

With another irritated growl, the call was ended and before Angel even had been given a second to process things the weight on his back disappeared and he was hoisted off the ground by the back of his blazer.

“Toss ‘im in the back.”

A command that was carried out relatively well considering the spider was hellbent on being a bother throughout the entire ride, after all you don’t treat a lady to a trip in the world’s tiniest trunk of a car. It took less than five minutes for him to kick out part of the backseat, being greeted with loud cursing from this little gang’s leader, who seemed to be driving the thing, as the other two just stared in disbelief before that turned into glares.

“What? ‘t was gettin’ lonely.”

The rest of the ride was spent with a gun pressed against his head and Angel continuously daring them to pull the trigger, it’s not like it would indefinitely kill him anyway. They supposedly knew this too and decided to not give their honored guest the easy way out—instead they got him to the hotel he had been dwelling at for almost half a year now. Like true gentlemen, once the car stopped he was violently yanked out of it, finding the world to be spinning a little more than he’d like it to be. The white-furred demon didn’t register much of the final few hits they got on him, putting the last of his energy to just dragging himself off to his room as per usual while that lunchbox on wheels drove off into the night, finally signaling an end to this whole scenario.

Setting foot into the lobby, he suddenly felt a lot more drained than he did before he walked through that door. The adrenaline that had been keeping him from shutting down in the face of danger had dissipated now that the threat was gone, and it left him clamping onto whatever surface was within reach—leaning against the walls and smearing blood all over them (if he wasn’t going to die from bleeding out then he was certain it’d be at the hands of Niffty having his head mounted on the very wall he had just painted red… more than it already was, that is).

It wasn’t even a handful of steps later that his vision started fading in and out, everything becoming a gaussian blur as his lungs struggled to fill themselves with air. There was no need to even consider getting up the stairs now, not when he couldn’t even properly see them, and before Angel could think of something he found himself already leaning against the door of the, for him pretty well-known, office.

It was weird how the entire time he hadn’t feared death, knowing that down here it wasn’t a permanent thing unless you got yourself skewered by an exterminator like a shish kebab, and yet now this annoying feeling came bubbling up— _being scared._

Head resting against the wooden panel, he weakly brought up a hand with the intend to knock, only to have it turn out more like he was pawing at the door. There was no sound coming from the other side, but Angel knew very well who occupied it around this hour—the only fucker in this building that presumably never sleeps.

_“…Al._ _”_

_‘Perhaps we should take some weight off those shoulders_ _—’_

That very sentence came back to play through his mind, the arachnid feeling the slightest of tugs at the corner of his lips as his last thought was how the other probably would have appreciated a lame joke like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise, I'm not making Val a _complete_ douchebag 👌


End file.
